How did Tokugawa Ieyasu maintain control over Japan following the Battle of Sekigahara?

by Tzuvembi

I'm fascinated by the opening years of the Edo period and the transition of power from the Toyotomi to the Tokugawa. I understand that one method used was strategically placing loyal vassals across the country to discourage rebellion, but what other methods were employed?

ParallelPain

Have a look at this thread

Everything in it applies except for Sankin Kōtai, which was not instituted until his grandson. However Ieyasu did require lords and/or their family to live in Edo as hostage.

The above is to do with keeping the Bakufu stable though. To establish a stable Bakufu, besides the post-Sekigahara land division and positions:

  1. No invasion of Shimazu or other far-flung regions was attempted. On the advice of Ii Naomasa and others, Ieyasu let them escape more-or-less unpunished in exchange for submission in order to prevent any chance of the Sekigahara campaign turning into a drawn-out war that might destabilize the order the Toyotomi had set up.
  2. Ieyasu courted the aristocrat favour by allowing the five Fujiwara Regent families to take back the Kanpaku position (in this case Kujō Kanetaka). At the same time he did not completely break with the Toyotomi, signaling that once Hideyori came of age he could still obtain the position.
  3. Ieyasu first moved out of Ōsaka Castle to Fushimi and then Nijō Castles (Kyōto), then, after receiving the Sei-i-taishōgun position, "copying Minamoto no Yoritomo", set up his government in Kantō. This allowed Ieyasu to break free from the influence of both the Toyotomi and the court, who were his nominal superiors, to set up a de-facto ruling power.
  4. Kyōto was kept under close watch. But unlike Ashikaga Takauji who tried to have his brother watch Kamakura, the Kyōto Shoshidai was instead a non-hereditary position given to a long-time, loyal vassal who could not have challenged the Bakufu's power.
  5. As soon as possible, Ieyasu passed the Shōgun position to his son, ensuring smooth transition of power. Ieyasu had the position for only two years. Admittedly this was common practice, and Hideyoshi's a bit unlucky with the succession crisis of his nephew.
  6. Ieyasu, knowing his precarious position in the early 1600s, married off his daughter, granddaughter, and when he ran out of female descendants adopted daughters to marry them off to the most powerful of daimyōs to secure marriage ties.
  7. Both Ieyasu and Hidetada are lucky they outlived many of Hideyoshi's old guards, most important being Katō Kiyomasa and Asano Nagamasa, both of whom died in 1611.
  8. And of course, before Ieyasu died, he wiped the Toyotomi out to ensure they can't challenge his descendants.